Cellular drier



Oct. 29, 195 N. PlTT 2,810,968

CELLULAR DRIER 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 16, 1954 Oct. 29, 1957 N. PITT 2,810,968

CELLULAR DRIER Filed Sept. 16, 1954 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 T 76 w///////////A 76% 34 .9

NORMA/V P777- .67 I/S Arrwelvafs United States Patent CELLULAR DRIER Norman Pitt, Los Angeles, Calif., assignor to Standard Steel Corporation, Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation of California Application September 16, 1954, Serial No. 456,502 8 Claims. (Cl. 34-109) The present invention relates to a new and improved type of cellular rotary drying apparatus.

Rotary driers as a class are, of course, well known at the present time and are widely used for drying a variety of materials. Early in the development of apparatus of this category it was determined that improved determined that further improved drying action could be obtained by forming a plurality of bafile-defined cells within the drying shell proper.

A number of devices of this latter category have been manufactured in the past. In the earliest of these constructions, all of the bafiles were rigidly fixed to one another and to the drying shell. This rigid construction was found to possess a number of marked disadvantages. First, when the shell was heated during use, there was apt to be buckling of the fixed baflle sections due to expansion caused by drying operation. Further, when the rotary driers employing such constructions were used with concurrent drying gas flow, the gas at times became loaded with moisture which, particularly on cold days, tended to precipitate in the outlet end of the drying shell. This pre cipitation tended to cause corrosion upon the baffles within this portion of the drying shell. Further, fixed bailies within these drying constructions could not be replaced easily and conveniently, once they were worn out by abrasion of the material being treated within the drier proper. Also, they could not be conveniently cleaned to remove various deposits of materials.

In order to overcome these disadvantages of the drier constructions utilizing fixed cellular bafiies, a number of rotary driers have been created in such a manner that the drying shell can be split open longitudinally, exposing the entire baffle arrangement used. This type of construction has the decided disadvantage that the tires and the gearing employed have to be formed in such a manner that they can'be opened along with the drying shell.

Further, in order to open such drying shells, they must be either removed from the trunnions employed with the apparatus, or specialized equipment must be employed to prevent rotation of this shell. With this split type of construction, it is, however, possible to clean and replace the various baffie sections employed. The other disadvantages indicated above, such as those related to buckling and the like, are not effectively overcome by the split type of construction herein described.

It is an object of the present invention to produce a new and improved type of cellular rotary drying apparatus which overcomes the defects of the foregoing and related prior art constructions. A further object is to teach the production of extremely efiective cellular rotary driers of a type capable of long service in which the individual baflie sections can be removed and cleaned or replaced as desired. Further objectives of the inventhe hot gases employed during the ice tion, as well as the advantages of it, will be apparent from the balance of this specification, including the appended claims and the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a side view of a rotary drier constructed in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the drier of Fig. 1, taken at line 22;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the drier of Fig. 1, taken at line 33;

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the drier of Fig. 1, taken at line 4-4;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of a drying section employed with the invention;

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section view of a modified drying section employed with the invention;

Fig. 7 is a partial end view of the drying section of Fig. 6, taken in the direction of the arrow 7 shown in Fig. 8 is a partial sectional view of a third modified drying section of the present invention taken in the same direction as the view shown in Fig. 7; and

Fig. 9 is a partial sectional view of the section shown in Fig. 8 taken in the direction of the arrow 9 shown in Fig. 8.

For convenience, like numerals are used to designate like parts in all figures.

Briefly, the above and related objects of the invention are achieved by forming a rotary drier in which a plurality of baffie sections covering the entire cross-section of the drying shell are placed removably within this shell. Preferably, these sections decrease in what may loosely be termed coarseness from the inlet to the outlet of the device. Further, these sections are preferably loosely joined to one another so that each section may expand during the use of the apparatus without buckling and corroding. Because of the removable nature of the sections used, they can conveniently be taken from the drying shell and cleaned or repla ed as the necessity dictates.

The invention is best further described with reference to the drawings. In Fig. 1, it is seen that the drier of the invention consists of a drying shell it? having supporting means 11' resting upon trunnions 12. A gear 13' surrounding the shell. co'acts with a smaller drive gear 14 connected to a speed reducer15 and a motor 16 by a flexible coupling and belt means 17 and 18, respectively, so as to turn the entire drying assembly. For convenience the end 19 of the shell 10 is designated the inlet or feed end, while the end 20 is designated the outlet or discharge end. Conventional separating means 21 are illustrated as attached to the end 20.

The portion of the shell 10 adjacent to the end 19, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, is filled with a plurality of baflles 34, such as are shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, stacked end to end longitudinally. These bafiies 34 are formed in separate sections and are temporarily attached, as by bolts or spot welds, to lifts 31 permanently joined to the interior wall 32 of the shell 10 at a sufiicient number of points 33 so as to provide adequate support. Thus, the number of supporting spots will vary with the size of these sections as well as with the weight of the material being treated. Four peripheral attaching points, as shown, are adequate for practically all baffle sections. 7

An important part of the present invention is that the bafiies employed are formed of individual sections of such a size that they can easily and conveniently be handled. These sections may contain relatively coarse bafiles such as the bafiles 34 in Fig. 2 which consist of a series of arms 35 attached perpendicularly to radial spokes 36 extending from a central hub 37. In the preferred confor cleaning purposes.

struction, the center section of the tunnel is filled with baffles 44, as shown in Fig. 3. Here a series of arms 45 are attached to radial spokes 46 extending from a central hub .47. These baffles 44 differ from those shown in Fig. 2 in that a plurality of. lugs 48iareattached at right'an'gles to the arms 45;. As shown in Fig. 4,. the bafiles54 near the. outlet end 20. differ fromthe bafiles 44 in that the lugs 58 are more closely spaced upon. the arms 55. than the lugs 48 are spaced upon the. "arms 45. Radial spokes 56 are attached" to a central hub 57 in the samemanner in which the spokes 46 are attached: to the-central hub 47.

It: is to be understood that all of the bafiles or bafile sections employed are. preferably attachedto the lifts 31, or to the shell wall itself, in the manner indicated above, so that they can; be removed relatively easilyL. For this reason no attempt is madeto specifically. discuss theattachment f the baflles 44Tand' 54. In order for there to.-be satisfactory distribution of materialfwithinthedrier, only the radial spokes 36, 4.6 and 56 project. as faras the tunnel'w ll. a

' The central hubs 37, 47 and 57 employed with the invention cam-of course, assume a variety of shapes. It is preferred to form them,,as.shown in Fig. Sfof the drawing, with a nonround female socket. 611 at one. end. and'a complementary male boss 62 projecting from the other extremity. Ifdesired, the boss 62'can be tapered as at 63 to' aid in positioning. When rearward" sockets are employed, it is, frequently possible to omitbolting or otherwise temporarily attaching the radial spokes of the center baffle sections to the wall of the drying tunnel. This has the decided advantage of permitting rapid disassembly For convenience of illustration, the drying section of Fig. has been made to correspond to the bafliles shown inFig. 2'.

1f desired," the indivi'dual'drying sections employed can utilize, instead of the boss and socket arrangement shown in Fig. Figs. 6 and 7. Here, the center of the baffle section is formed of'a round'piece of material such as a pipe 70, into one endof which there'projects a cylinder 71','terminating externally of the-drying section in a taperedprojection 72. Whena plurality of batfie sections formed as is 'indicated in this figure are used,.the projections 72 upon the shellsare placedinternally within. corresponding pipes 70 on the following'shells.

In order to prevent rotation between the individual drying sections, two oarsor arms 73 are attached to the, bafile 34, in such a manner thatthey are adapted to slip over an adjacent baflle placed uponanother drying section; Wtih a construction of' the type shown in Figs. 6

and 7, it is' preferred toallow sufficient. space between the bafile sections so that'expansion during use does not causeany bafile' section to buckle within the drying shell. Further, with the construction shown in these figures,.only the terminal bafile sections need be fastened to'the drying shell, although other such sectionsmay be fastened to the shell if an extremely ridged construction is desired.

In Figs. 8 and 9, another modified construction of the type shown in Figs. 6 and 7 is illustrated as containing four bars or arms 76, positionedcentrally between the bafiles 34in such a manneras to project from these bafiles and in usefit in a similar manneraround the equivalent bafiles on-an adjacent drying baffie'section so as to prevent rotation of this section. Obviously, the above remarks with regard to attachment spacing, alsoapply'to this modification of the-invention.

Those skilled in the art. will realize thepresent invention is capable of further modification within the scope. of the instant disclosure. For example; bafiie' sections of the same'type can be'employed throughoutthe length of the drying tunnel; While. this. is: not as "satisfactory as the preferred construction illustrated because the bafile spacing is not graduated to thedegree of dryness of the material treated, it is, nevertheless, satisfactory for many purposes. Also, allmanner of baffle configurae 5, a related arrangement such as is indicated in tions can be employed with the invention' These configurations include perforated, spiral and ribbon constructions. Such modifications are to be considered as part of the present invention insofar as they are defined by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

l. A new and improved rotary drier which comprises: a drying shell having inlet and outlet ends; trunnion means rotatably supportingsaid shell; drive means for rotating said shell; a plurality of battle sectionspositionedadjacent to one another within said shell, each of said hafile sections comprising a central core with a plurality of bafiles extending outward therefrom, each of said bafile sections being axially movablewithinsaid drying shell and through one of said ends of said drying shell, said bafi'le sections increasing in closeness of the baffle placement from the inlet end to the outlet end of said shell; means for attachingsaid drying shell to atleast one of said bathe sections in driving relationship; and means for at.- taching each of said bafile sections to theadjacent bafile section in driving relationship;

2. A new and improved rotary drier comprising: a dryingshell having inletand outlet ends; meansrotatably supportingv saidshellydrive means for rotating said sh'ell; a plurality of removable ba'flie sections having baflies dependent fromv central hubs positioned within said shell adjacenti'to one; another, saidhubs being provided with mating square" coaxialsockets and plugs fitting'together so as tov prevent rotationof'said sectionsrelativeto one another, said bafiie sections increasingdn'closeness of the battle placementfromv the inleteud to the outletgend of said; shell, and: extendingthrough'out substantially the: entire: cross-section. ofi said shell;. and means. for. attaching saiddryingshell .toat least: one ofasaidtbafile'sectionsin driving:relationship. v

3. Anew and improved rotary drier which comprises:

a' drying: shell; means rotatably; supporting said shell;

drive means for rotatingsuchshelha plurality of removable batfie sections havingthe baffies, dependent'from central hubs positioned. within such: shell, adjacent to. one another,v said hubs: being provided with. complementary round, portions fitting. together. and. arm' means fixed to saidsections to.-prevent:rotation of: adjacent sections: relative-tonne another; and means for: attaching said drying baflle sections in driving;

shell to at'least one of'said relationship. 7

4. A: new and improved'rotary, dryer. comprising: a drying'shell; means rotatably. supporting said shell;:drive' means for. rotatingsaid shell; a plurality of; removablebafile sections positioned adjacent to. one another within such shell; arm-.means attached. toneach of said. sections to-prevent rotationof adjacent: sections relative to oneanother; and means forv attaching-said drying shell to at least. one ofisaid bafiie sections in driving relationship;

5. A new-and improved rotary drier which comprises: a

drying shellhaving an inlet end. and anroutlet end; means rotatably. supportingsaid shell; drive means" for rotating said shell;.a plurality of baffle sections positioned within said shell; adjacent. toone another throughout the length of said shell, each of 'said bafile sections being axially movable within-'said-drying shell. and through one of said ends of said drying shell, the. baffle sectionsat each end of said'shell being attached'to'said shell;;and means-posi tioned upon eachof said sections. for. preventingrotation of adjacentbafiie sections relativeto said shell.

6. .A- device. asdefined. in: claim 5, wherein said means for preventing rotationcomprises arm-means located upon eachofsaid .bafile sections-for engaging anadjacentbaffie section.: V V

7.. A: new and.- improved rotary drier comprising: a dryin'gshell; meansrotatably supporting saidshell; drive means for. rotating said'shell; apluralityz oflbafile-sections.

positioned adjacent one anotherv within said shell, each of said baffle sections-being,axiallyrmovablewithin said shelli and-through one'end of said shell, each of said. bafliesections comprising a plurality of bafiies dependent from a central hub, said hubs being provided with coaxial, telescoping, non-round portions for engaging complementary portions of adjacent hubs so as to prevent rotation of said bafiie sections relative to one another; and means for attaching said drying shell to at least one of said baffie sections in driving relationship.

8. A device as defined in claim 5, wherein said means for preventing rotation comprises a central hub and a complementary boss coaxially positioned at opposite ends of said baffie sections, said bosses telescopingly engaging adjacent hubs in driving relationship.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Grimm Nov. 27, 1906 Gerlach July 28, 1914 Bernhard Apr. 3, 1917 Prindle Nov. 11, 1919 Hummel June 17, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Dec. 20, 1928 

